With two beautiful children and a devoted fiancé, Charlotte Dawson appeared to have it all. But her world came crumbling down earlier this month when she discovered her partner Matthew Sarsfield had been sexting another woman behind her back.
And while she struggled to come to terms with the betrayal, attempting to make sense of Matthew’s “bizarre” actions, the reality star has been keeping a closely guarded secret – she’s pregnant with his third baby. “It’s been a crazy time,” Charlotte, 31, tells us through tears from her beautiful home in Blackpool. “Having to deal with the heartache, the hurt, the disappointment and being pregnant on top of it all… it’s been absolutely horrible.”
After finding out she was expecting their “surprise” baby in July, Charlotte and Matthew were getting their heads around their new addition, a sibling for brothers Noah, three, and one-year-old Jude, when a woman went to the press with suggestive messages Matthew had sent her. Upon finding out, at the beginning of August, Charlotte immediately kicked him out of their home and has been torn over their future ever since.
“Matthew has been really trying to make this right,” she tells us as she delicately cradles her stomach. “He’s told me how sorry he is and how he can’t even explain what happened, he was so drunk when he sent the messages. It all happened before we were pregnant. We’re considering couples’ counselling, but the bottom line is, he has to work on himself first.”
As we speak to Charlotte, daughter of the late comedian Les, it becomes clear that Matthew is back in the family home, but he is far from forgiven. “I made him go and say sorry to the life-size cardboard cutout I keep of my dad,” she says. “And he has a lot of making up to do with my mum, too.”
But ultimately Charlotte’s decision to have Matthew, 32, back in the house comes down to Noah and Jude.
“Noah is three and he’s so clever and quick and he’s sensing things,” she explains. “And I don’t like it. He was asking where daddy was and I don’t want a broken home. I didn’t ask for that. I want to do what’s best for my kids. Matthew says he’s going to give everything he’s got into making this work and I obviously don’t want this new little baby being born into a mess. But I’ve not made a decision on the future of our engagement yet… Matthew needs to make changes and, until I can see them, I can’t decide on what’s next for us, romantically.”
With her relationship hanging by a thread and a new little bundle of joy due in March, Charlotte’s conflicting emotions are clear as she cries, laughs and reflects throughout our chat.
Here, she recalls the moment she found out about Matthew’s texts and her fears for her unborn baby as the stress of the situation became too much…
Hi, Charlotte. It goes without saying –congratulations. But what a stressful time to be pregnant! It’s meant to be the most exciting time of your life, but this whole situation has been such a shock. I’d almost forgotten I was pregnant. And the first trimester is awful anyway, you’re tired, you’re sick – and I’ve felt so rough these past 12 weeks – and to add this into the mix, it’s been horrible. [Charlotte starts to cry.] This baby is a blessing, but it wasn’t planned. So the whole thing has been one big surprise after another. When did you find out about the baby? It was just before we went on holiday in July. I’d been to a Shania Twain concert the night before, had a few and the next morning I felt so hungover I could barely function. My periods are irregular because I’m still breastfeeding Jude but I had no inkling I was pregnant. I thought I’d do a test at the airport. And there was a faint line. It was a happy moment but also an, “Oh, s**it – three under five,” moment.
And then came the text revelations… Well, yeah. I found out a couple of weeks later. We’d had such a lovely holiday and then, once we were home, I got a call from my team telling me this woman [Emily Louise Hopkinson] had gone to the papers with messages from Matthew. My manager had told him, too. He was getting Noah’s hair cut and I was on my way to meet him. My heart fell through my stomach. I couldn’t breathe. I had to sit down and try to stop myself being sick. It was such a painful moment. He called me almost straight away and kept repeating, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I just said, “It’s done Matthew, I can’t be with you any more.” But he begged me to meet him. So we did and I tried to be calm for the kids, but when we got home I went over to my sister’s house and didn’t come back that night. The next day I told him to pack his bags. There was a lot of shouting. I asked how he could do that to me and he couldn’t explain it. He was drunk when it happened. What did he send? He’d been having a friendly conversation with this woman, I think she’s the ex of one of his rugby mates, but she’d also messaged me before. She’d leave comments on my Insta stories of Matthew, saying things like “best dad ever”, so she obviously had a thing for him. She tried her luck one night over text when he was drunk and, like an idiot getting a bit of attention, he went for it and sent her pics of his bits. It just doesn’t make any sense why he’d risk so much, for that.
Have you ever spoken to this woman?Emily? I’ve never spoken to her, but after I found out, I went to see if she’d reached out to me before. She had sent me loads of message requests since 2022! But nothing about her and Matt having flirty exchanges. It’s sad that she didn’t message me to tell me or attempt to contact me before going to the press.
Did you have any idea this had happened? Our relationship hasn’t been easy over the last couple of years. We’ve found it hard to find time together. We don’t have date nights, and though we have a great support system the boys don’t stay overnight anywhere else. We love being with them. But it has been an issue for us, finding time to be intimate. We obviously got it right one time, as I’m pregnant, but it’s been difficult. Noah still sleeps in our bed so he’s our biggest c*ck block [laughs]. But no, I never would have expected this from Matthew. Are you worried there could be more women? I think if there were, they would’ve come out and said so by now, and he swears there isn’t.
What’s Matthew’s reaction been? He’s broken, and he’s been trying every single day to make it right. He’s not like one of those fellas who makes a mistake and doesn’t care, he’s clearly devastated by what he’s done. He’s heartbroken, but so he should be. Being drunk is no excuse and to be honest I don’t feel sorry for him at all, he’s brought this on himself. Were you worried about the effect the stress could have on the unborn baby? So worried. I didn’t even think the baby was still there at one point, because I was so stressed. I’ve lost babies before and I was panicking, because obviously stress can cause that. And the first trimester is the scariest one. You’ve got to be really careful. But I went for a scan with my mum recently and everything was fine. The heartbeat was strong, thank God. Didn’t Matthew go to the scan? No, it felt like the right thing to do with my mum. And to be honest for the first couple of weeks after it happened, I didn’t want him anywhere near me. That’s why he wasn’t at Jude’s first birthday party. I’ve just felt so sick about it all. But after a while Noah started asking questions about where his daddy was, and why he wasn’t at the house. Matthew was back with his mum and dad and would take the kids over there.
Why did you decide he could come home? Obviously, me being pregnant has had a massive effect on that decision. I’m not saying I’m fully back with him yet. He’s got a lot to sort out. He’s got to fix himself before he fixes the relationship. But it’s not as if he was declaring undying love for this woman or saying he wanted to leave me. And my family, as angry as they are, don’t want me to be on my own with three children. They want me to be happy and if we try and work through this, they’ll be supportive, but they’re very, very disappointed in him. The last few weeks have been incredibly hard on all of us. But I think we owe it to the children to try counselling and see if we can start communicating better. Now he’s back in the house, do you have any rules Matthew needs to stick to? Well, obviously he’s not going to be binge drinking any more. He’s off social media too and won’t be going back on that. But he’s actually happier being off it. I’ve now got the password to his phone, which I never had before. But I don’t want to be checking his phone every minute, I don’t want to be in a relationship like that. I have to navigate how I’ll trust him again. He’s made it clear that he will never hurt me ever again. When he apologised to the cutout of my dad, I said, “What have you got to say for yourself?” And Matthew said, “I’m so, so sorry for what I’ve done to your daughter.” And I told him to be glad Dad couldn’t speak back!
So where does this leave wedding plans? I’m in no rush to have a wedding right now, especially not with a baby on the way. I’ve not actually taken my ring off, but that’s only because I’d lose it. People keep saying I’m back with Matthew because I’ve still got my ring on, but I never took it off. I’ve got baby brain. I lose everything. It’s not like I forgave him, I just kept it on my finger.
So what are the next steps? Matthew has some counselling booked for himself and then we’ll try couples’ therapy, which could be the making of us. So many people have opinions on what I should do, especially people on social media, but as you can see, with a new baby in the mix, everything’s more complicated. He’s back at home but I’ve not yet made a decision on where we stand. That said, we sat together and watched a film the other day. No drama, just in each other’s company. It was nice.
Ideally do you want to get back together? We do want to try and make things work for our family, because me and Matthew were once madly in love. We’ve been together for eight years. We really, really loved each other, and we still love each other very much. I still want to bloody rip his clothes off, even though I want to chop his d*ck off, too. I still fancy him a lot and now I feel like I’m not good enough. So I have been struggling with those insecurities as well, but he’s completely reassured me that it’s nothing like that and he’s trying to give me compliments every minute of the day and telling me how much he loves me, and he’s so sorry. He just wants to try and make things right. So that’s where we’re at. And what are your hopes for the baby? I just want the baby to be happy and healthy, but it would be amazing to have a little girl. I’m dying to dress her up and play Barbies. It would be amazing for Matthew, too, as it would help him understand respect for females. He’d understand why you can’t treat women that way. I think being a girl dad would make him a better man, but we’ll see what happens. Either way, the baby will be loved completely.
